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Slice of Life Challenge Day 5: An Interview with an Artist

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged Interview with a young artist, Leo's art on March 5, 2023| 11 Comments »

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you have heard of the most famous artist in my life, Leo LeBlanc. He is only 4 years old, but as my dad (an artist himself) told me “If only Van Gogh’s mother had saved all his drawings.” So my daughter Maggie started a shared album on her phone. While he was living, my father took delight in seeing Leo’s art pop up on his phone. He often called me just to talk about it.

Last year, Leo was drawing, as he still does now, with a single marker, filling the page with a line design. Here is a sample of a piece from September 27, 2021 when he wasn’t quite 3 yet.

Now that Leo is four, he is able to speak what his imagination tells him he has drawn. Yesterday after his first soccer game of the season where he spent most of the time on the sidelines eating Goldfish, I took the opportunity to interview him as he was drawing. To me, his grandmother, this is priceless. You will hear his younger sister, Stella in the background. She is saying “I want to sit on you, Mamere.”

M: Hey, Leo LeBlanc, you just made a beautiful piece of art. Could you tell me about it?

L: It’s a boat carrying a parachute right here that carries a coconut.

M: Wow! So is the coconut attached to the boat or the parachute?

L: The parachute is connected to both.

M: To both of them?

L: Like, connected to here, here, here, here, here, here…

L: That’s all part of the parachute.

M: Okay. All right.So what is this?

L: The coconut.

M: And what is this right here?

L: The star on the web.

M: The star on the web?

L: I’m about to draw the web. I just showed the web because I’m going to draw it. I’m not building another coconut. It’s just how it lives like this.

M: What did you just draw?

L: Zigzag.

M: That goes on the boat?

L: Zigzag. A motor has to go. It’s tipping over because it’s a motor boat. Does this look like a motor?

M: It sure does.

L: The tip goes in the water, leans back, they pull the handle, and it goes in the water.They start moving on the steering wheel, and it goes. It tips over.

M: Yeah.Very nice.

L: And there’s a web right here. And the parachute has to go under the boat.This space has to go somewhere. I don’t know what’s coming. Okay, I’m not done.

M: You’re not done? Okay.Thank you very much, Leo LeBlanc.

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Slice of Life: Sleep

Posted in Gifted Education, Slice of Life, tagged Social/ Emotional needs of the gifted on March 4, 2023| 11 Comments »

I teach gifted kids in grades 1-6 at two elementary schools in my district. We use a pull-out program, so I see my kids every day. Alice (not her real name) comes to me at the end of the school day, after second recess and before dismissal. Yesterday she was tired, and I could tell. Her eyes were half closed and she had very little patience for the suggestions I was making about her work.

Alice is very talented, not just in academics, but also in art. However, her perfectionism can get in the way. We were doing an art project in the form of Jean-Michel Basquiat. We watched a video from a Pace artist from the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Following the directions of the teaching artist resulted in a Baquiat-esque painting. Alice did not like what happened when she created her background. “I hate it,” she cried. And tears fell down her little cheeks.

I knew this melt down was not just about the art. She was tired. She had an idea in her head of what she wanted her art to look like, and it wasn’t happening. She’s a calm child. She didn’t tear up the paper. She didn’t cry loudly or need to take a break. I let her figure it out, and by the end of class, she had cut out one of her practice drawings and glued it to a solid background. And I think she left for the weekend somewhat pleased with how she had gathered the strength to at least have something to put in the hall display.

But before all this happened, we talked about her exhaustion. I know that gifted kids have a hard time shutting down their brains to sleep. I also know that research shows you should turn off all screens at least an hour before going to sleep.

Alice: “I’m just tired.”

Me: “Did you watch TV before you went to sleep?”

Alice: “Yes, I always do.”

Cringe on my face, “You know research says that TV stimulates your brain so you won’t get restful sleep if you use it to fall asleep.” I tried to sound logical and not degrading.

A: “I just can’t stop thinking! I need a Notes app for my brain!”

I couldn’t help but laugh! Then I explained to her how a notebook next to her bed could be her notes app for her brain.

She admitted that she would probably totally forget this conversation by the time she would be going to bed. I think we could all use a Notes app for our brains.

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Spiritual Journey & Slice of Life: Meaningful Words

Posted in Slice of Life, Spiritual Growth, Writing on March 2, 2023| 13 Comments »

Some time ago a blogging friend suggested subscribing to The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad. At the time I didn’t know who she was, how amazing, how she has written a book, married Jon Batiste, and that she battles leukemia every day. All I knew was her writing felt like a letter from a friend. Her prompts compelling.

Prompt 230 came from The Renunciations by Donika Kelly. I wrote from the line “Let this be a moment of remembering”

“Let this be a moment of remembering” Donika Kelly

Let us be bird and nest. Let
me curl my toes around this
threshold to flight. You’ll be
waiting with your net of comfort, a
reason or two why this moment
shouldn’t crush me. Eyes of
love, we’ve been here before–remembering.
Margaret Simon, Golden Shovel for Jeff, my nest for 40+ years

This post is also the first Thursday of the month Spiritual Thursday gathering. Today Karen Eastlund is hosting. She suggested we write about “words to fall back on.”

Over and over I fall back on Mary Oliver’s words. The line “You do not have to be good” from Wild Geese gives me the confidence I need to plow through. There will be days that I mess up, say the wrong thing, write something shitty. But we don’t have to “walk on (our) knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.” We can embrace our soft animal body and let it love what it loves.

This Lent I have started writing in my journal using a line from the Bible as a jumping off place. This morning the verse I turned the page to was “You were blameless in your ways from the day that you were created.” Ezekiel 28.15.

My response:

Guilt lives in my backpack.
I carry it with me wherever I go.
I’ve never done enough according to Guilt.
I’ve been selfish and without purpose.
Guilt is heavy and wants to break me.
Some will say, “You’ve done everything you could.”
I wish I believed them.
Where weeds grow, more will come
until you decide
their simple beauty
is within their blamelessness.

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Slice of Life Challenge ’23: Azalea Lane

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Spiritual Growth, tagged #poemsofpresence, #smallpoems, azaleas, Bible response, March, spiritual journey on March 1, 2023| 12 Comments »

Welcome to Day One of the 2023 Slice of Life Challenge. This challenge occurs every year during the month of March. Writing every day is good exercise for a writer. This challenge is sponsored by the Two Writing Teachers, a blog site for writing teachers. They post essays about the teaching of writing, but in March, it’s all about the teachers themselves who understand that being a teacher who writes strengthens the teaching of writing. We are a community of peers. Comments are welcome and encouraged. Comments are the sideline cheers for a marathon runner.

I decided for Lent this year I would read a page in the Bible and then write. I’m not committed to sharing each of these journal scribblings, but I’m starting off today with one.

I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and I will make for you a great name.
2 Samuel 7:9

Azalea Lane

I have planted you
in the clay soil of Louisiana.
Most of the year, like Persephone,
you are perfect, leafless, waiting.
You look dormant, dead, but
on the first day of March,
you blossom
and shine
like a pink sunrise
opening,
opening,
opening,
saying to the world,
“I’m here!
I’m wonderful!
I’m beautiful!”

I welcome March, a month of transformation from winter to spring, transformation through the daily practice of shared writing. Thanks for reading.

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Slice of Life: Courir de Mardi Gras

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Acadiana Center for the Arts, Courir de Mardi Gras, Eunice Louisiana, Travel on February 28, 2023| 8 Comments »

I have lived in South Louisiana for 40 years, but had never attended the authentic Courir de Mardi Gras. Courir is a French Cajun word meaning run. In the western parishes north of us, there are multiple small towns that have a chicken run. The basic idea is the krewes are going house to house to get all the ingredients for a gumbo. The final ingredient is a chicken. The chicken run is a crazy, wild drunken race to catch the chicken.

I introduced this cultural tradition to my students, and we did chicken art on the Thursday before our Mardi Gras break. We followed a video created by the Acadiana Center for the Arts linked here. The chickens were created using recycled materials. In Courir de Mardi Gras, the costumes are made with scraps of fabric and masks are made with screen. It is the total opposite of New Orleans Mardi Gras which is all about royalty and elaborate beautiful costumes. Courir de Mardi Gras has a captain rather than a king who leads the krewe.

My husband and I became interested in Courir from a performance we saw at the Acadiana Center for the Arts. We decided to go to the parade in Eunice when all the krewes come in, some on horse back. My daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids joined us. We had made some costumes by adding fabric patches and fringe to old clothes. I used an old scarf, some sparkling jewel tape, and an old denim shirt. As the parade came through, Leo was poked (in jest) by a couple tricksters; one of them untied my shoelaces. Afterward there was a band we love to hear and dance to, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys.

I have to admit I was a bit creeped out by the chickens. I refrained from petting one. They walk close to the crowd to allow for petting. The chickens are surprisingly calm. I gasped when I saw a dead one on the ground. And to top it all off, a woman was wearing a taxidermic chicken on her head. While the band was playing, some of the tricksters got on the stage and threw a live chicken into the crowd. Luckily, I was not close by.

Learning more about the culture of my own state is fascinating and fun. I’m also trying to accept some of the craziness of it all. For the most part, it is harmless fun.

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Slice of Life: Love Letters

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged 1925, Cecil A. Lennan, love letters, love poem on February 14, 2023| 10 Comments »

Our daughter Martha came home this weekend with her 7 week old, June Margaret “Junebug”. We were talking about names and the fact that Margaret is a family name on both sides. My grandmother and my husband’s grandmother were both named Margaret. Apparently Martha didn’t know about Mate’s name, Jeff’s grandmother, because she only knew her as “Mate” and Betsy Ross.

Jeff’s grandmother grew up in Canada. His grandparents’ love story starts with a bad fish. Cecil Lennan was in the hospital in Toronto, Canada and opened his eyes to the love of his life, Margaret Ross. They married in New York City, and Cecil “Pate” nicknamed her Betsy. “Since you are an American now, you should be Betsy Ross.” She was never again called Margaret. New life. New country. New name.

Shortly after their marriage, “Betsy” Ross Lennan traveled back home to her family in Canada. While she was gone, Cecil wrote her letters. This was 1925. We still have three of them. In 2018, I was writing in a workshop and used one of these letters to write a found poem. I blogged about it here.

Since today is Valentine’s Day, I am reposting this love poem.

Come Back, my Love
(after Cecil Lennan, 1925.)

If you come in on the 7:47, bring the bathing suit with you.
And bring back yourself even if you forget all of the above.

Bring back that dark brown hair I love,
the big wavy curl that hangs
continuously over your left eye.

Bring back the eyes looking into mine
telling me you are mine.
Bring back the nose,
your quivering lips–silent.

Bring back the arms that have hugged me
so tightly–a little tighter still, because–
because they wanted to.

Bring back your heart, that electric spark
thrilling my toes, my body to my head
and down again–and again.

Bring back the mystery, the wonder,
the sweetness that is yours.
I will take it all, put my arms around it
all, and hug, and kiss, and love it
for ages and ages.
Will you?
Margaret Simon, found poem (c) 2018

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Slice of Life: Small Moments

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged #smallmoments, Charlie, purpose, schnoodle on January 10, 2023| 3 Comments »

All we have are these moments: the golden trees,
the industrious bees, the falling light. Darkness
will not overtake us.
Barbara Crooker, “Poem with an Embedded Line by Susan Cohen”

My One Little Word for 2023 is Purpose. I am trying to purposefully capture small moments and hold them close. My dog Charlie is near the end of his life. He is 15. He sleeps most of the day. But he still gets excited about treats.

We were having a rainy day. I heard the rain, but it didn’t register that I had let Charlie out in the side yard. I don’t know what made me remember. Perhaps it was his slight scratch at the door. Or the boom of thunder. He is usually afraid of thunder.

I opened the door and Charlie ran in, soaking wet. I grabbed a towel and sat down on the floor. He ran into my arms and let me rustle him around in the towel. Then he’d run away and turn around, back into the towel, rub rub rub, shake, shake, off he ran again. He did this a few times. I was giggling hard.

My old dog has some life left in him!

What are your small moments of joy?

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Slice of Life: A Newborn Christmas

Posted in being mamére, Slice of Life, tagged #JuneMargaret, being mamére, Bishop Michael Curry, Bishop Shannon Rogers Duckworth on December 27, 2022| 15 Comments »

I was prepared for this to be a different Christmas. My youngest daughter’s first child was due on Dec. 19th, so I took off the 19th and 20th and drove to her home to be with her and her husband. She had a scheduled induction on Tuesday, Dec. 20th. I will not go into the details of the whole process, but Martha handled the long labor like a champ. When at 11:30 PM, she was ready to push, my middle daughter turned to me and pointed to her watch. We realized that the baby would be born on her great grandfather’s birthday. She came into the world at 12:39 on Dec. 21st.

My first look at this new baby girl confirmed our suspicions that she would be a big baby. She even had jelly rolls on her legs. Later we found out she weighed 9 lbs. 5 oz.!

Martha and Paul did not reveal her name until she was born. I anxiously waited while Martha said she needed to hold her before she would name her. With the baby in her arms, she turned to me and said, “Her name is June Margaret.” My heart melted.

Margaret is a name that was given to me by my mother to honor her mother who passed away 3 months before I was born. I’ve always thought of my grandmother Margaret as a guardian angel. We named our first daughter Margaret and call her Maggie. When Maggie didn’t use the name for her daughter, I thought that was the end of the line. I never imagined that Martha would choose it. Once Martha knew she was having a girl, she told us that the baby’s name was one syllable. That put me into a rabbit hole of one syllable girl names. June never appeared on my list. And neither did Margaret.

I know Baby June will grow into her name and give it her own personality. The legacy of Margaret is with her. But even without the gift of the name, this child is in my heart.

While she was being born, we played Martha’s Christmas playlist. One of the songs was “Breath of Heaven” by Amy Grant. In that moment, all was quiet. I looked over at the doctor, a small petite woman, who was swaying back and forth as I was. We felt the presence of God in the room. Birth is a holy moment.

One hymn that has been playing in my head was featured in Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s Christmas message: “Love came down at Christmas. Love all lovely. Love divine. Love was born at Christmas. Star and angel gave the sign. Love came down at Christmas.”

June Margaret is a Christmas miracle. She is love divine. She is a pure angel.

I attended Christmas Eve service at Christ Cathedral in New Orleans. In her first Christmas message as bishop of Louisiana, Bishop Shannon Rogers Duckworth told us to embrace the small moments. I pray this first Christmas with June will stay with me as one of those gems, the small moment of holding pure love and being a witness to the love of my daughter with her husband and their new not-so-tiny newborn.

Breath of Heaven

A winter solstice
A holy birth
Total darkness
shines with June light.
Margaret Simon

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Slice of Life: Tree Climbing

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged field trip, tree climbing on November 8, 2022| 8 Comments »

On Friday, we took our students on a field trip to Bluebonnet Swamp in Baton Rouge. Because it is a natural preservation site, we were not allowed to picnic on the grounds. We piled back into the bus to travel a few miles to another park. When we pulled up, a student yelled out, “I don’t see the playground.”

They were right. It was a vast green space with a pavilion, picnic tables, and a track. After we finished eating, I offered a walk to some students. We walked down a hill to a ravine and found a large live oak with its branches draping over the ground and ravine. The branches reached low enough for climbing.

And climbing was what they did. As though the tree herself had invited them on. Despite my little nag on my teacher shoulder, I let them go. Years ago when I was raising young children, I remember my sister-in-law allowing her daughter to climb a tree. I questioned her. She said, “Climbing gives her body confidence.” I was holding onto this as I watched these students in all their confident bodies climb all over the tree like cautious ants. They really did seem to know if they could do it.

No one fell. No one got hurt. Not one of them got wet. I released my held breath and patted my teacher-shoulder. On the way back up the hill to the bus, one of the students yelled out, “This is the best. field. trip. ever!”

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Slice of Life: Butterfly Whisperer

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged butterfly, Gulf Fritillary, student wonder on October 25, 2022| 11 Comments »

You park in the same spot.
You walk the same hall,
see the same faces, but one day,
a child opens her hands to show you
a butterfly, and suddenly,
you become a part of her wonder.

You invite her to go outside.
“Let’s find a flower to feed the butterfly.”
You open Google and take a photo.
Images pop up identifying the beautiful wings
as “Gulf fritillary or Passion butterfly.”

Other children gather round
and pass the gentle butterfly hand to hand.

In your mind, you know this is not a good sign.
The butterfly is not viable, yet one student squeals,
“I’ve never seen a butterfly so close up!”
Others whisper, “Wow!”
“It’s so soft!”

Wonder continues, grows, swells,
so the poor fritillary becomes a subject
to study, a specimen for children’s eyes.

You decide it’s an honor
to be known as the butterfly whisperer.